Correct English (2): Verba, Adverbia, Preposisi, Konjungsi

Verba / Kata Kerja

Mari kita teruskan Correct English kita. Kali ini kita akan mencoba memahami kata kerja atau verba (verb).

Kata kerja atau verba adalah kata yang menunjukkan suatu tindakan atau keadaan, misalnya: climb, sing, draw, talked, wrote

Verba dapat terdiri dari satu maupun lebih dari satu kata.
She writes a letter. (satu kata)
She should have written a letter of her illness. (lebih dari satu kata).

Verb mengalami beberapa perubahan bentuk sehubungan dengan waktu kapan peristiwa itu terjadi. Bentuk perubahan kata kerja ini disebut tenses.

Misalnya:
Present tense: I refuse that proposal.
Past tense: I refused that proposal.
Future tense: I shall refuse that proposal.
(Tenses selengkapnya, silakan baca postingan ‘ English For Young Learners’)

Dalam kaitannnya untuk membuat kalimat, verba / kata kerja memerlukan adanya subject. Subject (subyek) adalah sebuah kata atau selompok kata yang melakukan tindakan verba:

Robert reads a novel.
To spend too much money is foolish.

Untuk kalimat transitif, obyek diperlukan untuk kelengkapan kalimatnya.
Object (obyek) adalah kata atau kelompok kata yang dikenakan tindakan verba:

My father reminded him.
I have lost my beautiful pen.

Namun demikian tidak semua verba harus mempunyai object. Dalam kalimat intransitif verba tidak memerlukan object / obyek.

He was dreaming.
They are struggling to survive.

Contoh lain kalimat transitif yang verba-nya memerlukan sebuah object.

My younger daughter is writing a letter. (a letter = object).
He has to shoot the target. (the target = object).

Promina bisa memiliki bentuk yang berbeda, tergantung apakah ia berkedudukan sebagai subject atau object.

I called him loudly but he did not hear me.

Saya / orang pertama tunggal, sebagai subyek menggunakan ‘I ‘, sedangkan sebagai obyek menggunakan ‘me’. Demikian juga ia (laki-laki) sebagai orang ketiga menggunakan ‘he’ sebagai subyek, dan ‘him’ sebagai obyek.

Verba to be (am, is, are) dan bentuk lampaunya (was, were), tidak dapat memiliki object tetapi memerlukan pelengkap atau complement. Verba yang memerlukan pelengkap ini kadang-kadang disebut linking verb, kopula, atau verba penghubung karena fungsinya menghubungkan subyek dengan pelengkap (complement).

He is one of my friends (is = linking verb, one of my friends = complement).
Her farther is a dentist. (is = linking verb, a dentist = complement).

Verba tertentu (finite verb), adalah verba yang subyeknya sudah tertentu. Meskipun subject tidak disebutkan secara eksplisit, tetapi dapat dipahami subject kalimat itu sudah tentu.

Do not smoke at the gas station!

Meskipun tidak disebutkan tetapi subject-nya dapat diartikan sebagai kamu, kalian, atau siapa pun (sudah tentu).

Verba tidak tentu (non-finite verb) adalah verba yang tidak memiliki subject, tetapi verba itu malah berfungsi sebagai subject dalam kalimat.

To delay landing would be fatal.
To solve the problem would take much energy.

Verba juga dapat berfungsi sebagai nomina (kata benda) dan adjektiva (kata sifat).

Reading would lead you to the wider world (reading = nomina)
Standing party tends to be the new style now (standing = adjektiva)

Verba dapat berbentuk aktif maupun pasif. Verba aktif apabila subject melakukan tindakan verba, sedangkan verba pasif apabila subject dikenai tindakan verba.

The judges sent him for five-year imprisonment (subject/the judges melakukan tindakan).
He was sent for five-year imprisonment (subject / he, dikenai tindakan verba).

Bentuk verba juga dapat berbeda apabila dipengaruhi oleh bentuk subject tunggal (singular) atau jamak (plural).

The bird flies.
The birds fly.


Adverbia / Adverb / Kata Keterangan

Adverbia adalah kata yang memberikan keterangan terhadap kata kerja (verba), kata sifat (adjektiva), atau pun kata keterangan (adverbia) yang lain.

He cried loudly. (loudly menerangkan cried = adverbia menerangkan verba)
There was a very faint cry. (very menerangkan faint = adverbia menerangkan adjektiva)
He cried more loudly. (more menerangkan loudly = adverbia menerangkan adverbia)

Bila adverbia menerangkan verba, biasanya adverbia ini menunjukkan bagaimana, kapan, di mana, atau mengapa tindakan verba itu dilakukan. Adverbia yang menunjukkan mengapa kegiatan verba terjadi, biasanya dalam bentuk adverbial clause karena sifatnya berupa penjelasan.

He is crying loudly. ( bagaimana menangisnya? loudly)
He is crying at the moment. ( kapan menagisnya? at the moment )
He is crying in the classroom. ( di mana menangisnya? in the classroom)
He is crying because he has lost his money. (mengapa menangis? because he has lost his money)

Pada umumnya adverbia dibentuk dengan menambahkan –ly pada adjektiva:

loud (adjektiva) – loudly (adverbia)
absolute (adjektiva) – absolutely (adverbia)

Akan tetapi tidak semua adverbia mengikuti ketentuan ini:

This is the fast way (adjektiva). They run fast (adverbia).
This magazine is weekly publication (adjektiva). They publish the magazine weekly (adverbia)


Preposisi / Kata Depan ( Preposition)

Preposisi / kata depan adalah kata yang menunjukkan hubungan antara nomina (kata benda) atau pronomina (kata ganti) dengan bagian lainnya dalam kalimat.

She jumped into the water.
The carpenter took the nail from the wood.
Preposisi biasanya mendahului dan bertalian erat dengan nomina, pronomina, atau frasa / klausa kata benda (noun phrase / noun clause).

Preposisi menunjukkan hubungan tempat:

You must walk around the jungle, not through it (antara around dan through the jungle, menunjukkan hubungan tempat yang berbeda)

Preposisi menunjukkan hubungan waktu:

They came before / during / after the rain (before/during/after menunjukkan hubungan waktu)

Preposisi menunjukkan hubungan cara:

They hit me with a hammer.
He goes to school on foot.
The cargo was delivered by hand.

Kadang-kadang preposisi dihilangkan:

The rescue team shows (to) me the way out from the jungle.

Kata yang sama dapat berfungsi sebagai sebuah preposisi maupun sebagai adverbia:

You have to put it outside the room (preposisi).
Wait outside and I will meet you! (adverbia).

Konjungsi / Kata Sambung / Conjunction

Konjungsi atau kata sambung adalah kata yang menggabungkan dua kata, dua kelompok kata, atau dua klausa.

red and white (menghubungkan dua kata)
take it or leave it (menghubungkan dua kelompok kata)
I was absent because I got headache yesterday (menghubungkan dua klausa)

Letak konjungsi tidak harus berada di antara kata yang dihubungkan:

Because I got headache yesterday, I was absent.
Although it was raining, the children went on playing.

Sebuah kata dapat berfungsi sebagai konjungsi dalam satu kalimat, tetapi dapat juga berfungsi lain dalam kalimat yang berbeda:

Wash the dishes after you eat! (konjungsi)
Wash the dishes and you may go after! (adverbia)
We let you go after the rain (preposisi).

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English Teaching: Speaking Teachers Needed!

Students graduated from secondary school have been learning English at least for six years. The first three years when they were learning in Junior High School and the other three years when they were in Senior High School. Anyhow, it seems that many of the graduates, if not the most, still do not obtain adequate ability of speaking. If this is an indication, then the other three main skills of language learning such as listening, reading and writing are subject to an enigma. As they are inter-correlated skills, which form the unity, it is still questionable if the instructional aims have been attained.

Looking at the surroundings here where many English courses are growing out side the formal schools, this may be also an indication to the above assumption. If formal schools are offering adequate performance of daily-in use skill of English, then English courses should not have provided general English, except one for TOEFL / IELTS certification or English for special purposes. As a matter of facts, English courses are offering programs of making the students speak as if they have not had got any English lessons at school.

English courses are likely to be more suitable places to learn surviving English rather than schools where students have been learning English for about six years, but have got nothing from their school. It is ironical if a student who exceeds the others and can speak English well then be proud of his English course rather than his formal school.

The other reason for questioning if the teaching process in schools is enigmatic is that the outputs that are not the answer of the job markets. Job vacancies, especially ones of foreign companies, require the applicants to have a good command of English in both written and spoken. In fact, most of applicants often do not meet the requirements; even their written English is under the standard. With this condition, the school outputs finally only fill vacancy of the local companies with less salary.

The inadequate speaking skill the students gain from schools, which is always under the job market, may have been the reason for parents to take any English course after school hours for their children. They have been thinking that English is compulsory for today’s livings. For the relatively rich parents this additional course outside the formal school would not be a financial burden, but it is not for the poor.

The causative factors why graduates from secondary schools do not have an ability to speak English after six years of leaning at school are, among others:

1. English teachers do not (or speak a little) English in class
When the teacher does not speak English, the students will never hear people speaking, nor do they try to speak. Then, how can students speak English if the teacher does not teach to speak and act as a live model? Teachers should encourage their students speak with them, with other students or anyone who may be possible to be their counterpart.

2. English teachers teach only grammatical rules
Teaching grammatical rules would never make the students speak. It would not give the students much help unless the students understand how to use the grammar. In fact, students just memorize the rules but do not ever know the usage. They do not have any ability to apply to the rules. For example: students are learning tenses but they do not know when they should apply tenses to sentences. Grammar should be more appreciative.

3. English teachers do not teach the real materials
The teaching materials are often beyond the daily life. The textbooks are about technical topics such as industry, politics, health and not one of daily life. Teachers teach the students with words like industrialism, liberalism, reformation, which students will never start speaking with such kinds of words. Teachers should teach their student’s vocabulary applicable to the daily life such as ones for introducing, greeting, and asking directions, shopping and the similar activities. Vocabulary should be communicative.

4. Repetition and not subsequence of teaching
When students learn English in Senior High School, the teachers just teach them grammatical rules like ones from Junior High School. Students learn the same materials as what they got from the previous school. Thus, it is only a repetition of materials and not the continuation.

Conclusion:

1. English teachers should be more talk-active in the class, as they will never make their students speak without direct speaking model from themselves.

2. Grammar should be applicative so that students can apply the grammatical rules to the commutative language.

3. Vocabulary should be communicative so that the students can start speaking with these words.

4. Teaching that develops materials and not repeats.

Have a nice teaching! From: English Learning Camp.

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Learning English in a Jungle

If you are learning English, you are usually in school, in your own room or in that of an English course. To make it comfortable, the room has been designed in such doing and equipped with air conditioning, audio-visual learning aids, or anything that will support the process of learning. Have you ever heard learning English in a jungle? It looks like strange, but if you watch a legendary film of Tarzan you see that Tarzan speaks English fluently. Is there any English course in the jungle where he has been so long surviving in the midst of animal world?

Do you know why Tarzan speaks English well? Ok, do not take it seriously. The film is only a fiction and the actor who is taking the role of Tarzan maybe a native speaker. That is why Tarzan is speaking English perfectly. But, I do not mean that, do I?

What I mean with learning English in a jungle is that we learn the way as Tarzan has been surviving in the midst of the jungle, the place where no one offers any help to his life. It is not a logic that a powerless baby can live in a juggle, without anyone else, surviving in the wild jungle where almost dangerous animal’s attacks may threaten. The most valuable lesson is that how he is learning to survive.

Supposed we are now stranded at any place of an English speaking country, say England or USA, and without any adequate knowledge of English we have to survive over there. What will we do to preserve living? There is no other way rather than just adapting to the local basic condition, and to do this we must learn the language in use: English!

Since learning English is not just as like the one that we are doing here, and in the above illustration it is a compulsory, we are forced to learn it with no other choice. It is a matter of do or don’t. And as you must survive in the remote-far-from-homeland place, you will be leaning English faster.

Of course, we do not need to be a Tarzan and go to wild jungle, nor we are stranded in other countries. The way of learning that is valuable to take is that we should learn like Tarzan. Don’t be afraid of taking the start; don’t worry of making mistakes. It is a common practice, as a learner, if we make some errors in learning. From these ‘good errors’ we can learn to avoid the same things happen for the twice. We built the excellence from the errors, and build perfection from the limitation.

Tarzan in the real life may be similar with the street vendors who are selling souvenirs in the tourist resorts like ones in Bali or Yogyakarta. To offer the merchants and get money from foreign tourists or visitors they have to speak English; and to do this they learn the language. They way they are learning is not like what the students do, who are sitting in the class with the guidance from their teacher, but vendors do like what Tarzan does. They learn in the jungle, they learn from the wildness of living, from the resorts where they may expect for some rupiahs.

We may have been learning English for many years, perhaps from the first year we were in school until now when we had left the class. But we should be dare enough to question ourselves, is our English in proportion of sense with the long time we have taken to learn it? Or, even until now we still do not speak? Street vendors who are learning English in a Tarzan’ way, learning from the hard life, may be more capable. Not like we are who always prefer to wander in doubt of learning.

Let’s start learning like Tarzan.

Mojokerto, 15/07/09
the site keeper ( a friend of Tarzan, but not an orangutan )

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Correct English (1): Noun, Pronoun & Adjective

Contents dalam blog ini saya tambah dengan satu serial baru yang saya namai: Correct English. Dalam materi ini kita tidak membahas mengenai tata bahasa atau grammar yang njelimet, ruwet dan complicated tetapi lebih kepada tips menggunakan Bahasa Inggris yang baik dan benar, menghindari kesalahan-kesalahan umum yang sering terjadi. Seperti halnya serial English For Young Learners, kita tidak menekankan pembahasan rumus ketata-bahasaan, tetapi membahas penerapannya. Rumus-rumus grammar yang njlimet bisa anda temukan sendiri di toko-toko buku. Referensi yang saya pakai adalah buku Corect English, karangan B.A. Thytian, (1985).


Memahami Tata Bahasa

Supaya bisa memahami struktur Bahasa Inggris kita perlu memahami fungsi kata. Satu kata sederhana bisa mempunyai arti yang berbeda. Apalagi bila kata itu kemudian sudah diperluas dangan menambahkan modifier sehingga membentuk sebuah frasa (phrase).

Kita ambil contoh sebagai berikut:

He is sound.
The sound is too loud.

Dalam kalimat yang pertama kata sound adalah kata sifat (adjective) yang memberi keterangan pada subject (he). Dalam kalimat yang kedua, sound adalah jenis kata benda (noun) yang mempunyai jabatan sebagai subyek (subject).

Jenis kata ini dalam Bahasa Inggris disebut sebagai ‘parts of speech’. Mari kita coba membahas satu per satu:

1. Kata benda = nomina (noun)

Nomina fungsinya untuk memberi nama pada benda atau orang. Benda di sini bisa berupa tempat, keadaan, perbuatan, kualitas, atau konsep.

Mojokerto, farm, yard (tempat)
happiness, sadness, calm (keadaan)
works, action, innovation, invitation (tindakan)
hospitality, tranquillity (kualitas)
privacy, democracy, crime (konsep)

Ditinjau dari bentuknya kata benda ini ada yang tunggal (singular), jamak (plural), tunggal sekaligus jamak, bahkan selalu jamak.

apple, book, man, mouse, box (tunggal)
apples, books, men, mice, boxes (jamak)
fruit, sheep, fish (tunggal dan jamak)
pants, scissors, trousers (selalu dalam bentuk jamak)

Ada juga kata benda yang digunakan untuk menamai sekelompok orang atau benda disebut collective noun, misalnya : herd, group, public.

Kata benda untuk menamai orang atau benda secara unik ditulis dengan awalan huruf besar: the Prime Minister, the Mount Merapi

Kata benda kadang-kadang dipakai berdampingan, yang satu menjelaskan yang lainnya, ini disebut noun in apposition (berdampingan).

Mugito Guido, the site keeper, is writing an article
Mbah Surip, the song write, is becoming rich.

2. Pronoun = promina = kata ganti

Kata ganti fungsinya untuk mengganti kata benda yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya (antecedent) agar tidak terjadi pengulangan beberapa kali.

The car hit the tree. The car is now placed at the nearby police station.
Nancy is absent now. Nancy may be at home.

Untuk menghindari pengulangan kata yang sama, dua kalimat tersebut dapat ditulis:

The car hit the tree. It is now placed at the nearby police station.
Nancy is absent now. She may be at home.

Kata ganti dapat berbentuk tunggal : I , you (kamu), he, she, it, atau pun jamak: You (kalian) , we, they.

Pengelompokan kata ganti:

1) Personal pronoun / persona / kata ganti orang: I, my, mine / he, him, his / you, your, yours / they, them, their, … dan seterusnya.
2) Demonstrative (penunjuk): this, those, that, those. Misalnya : This belongs to you.
3) Interrogative (penanya): who, whose, which, what. Misalnya: Who ate my orange?
4) Indefinite (tidak tentu): anyone, no-one, each, either, …
5) Relative (penghubung): who, whose, whom, what, which, that

3. Kata ganti = adjektive = adjective

Kata ganti fungsinya adalah menerangkan atau sebagai modifier kata benda.

Round table – meja bundar, kata sifat ‘bundar’ menerangkan ‘meja’
Red devil – setan merah, kata sifat ‘merah’ menerangkan ‘setan’

Biasanya kata sifat diletakkan di depan kata yang diterangkan:

Some terrible nights
interesting nice stories
black giant shark

Namun ada juga beberapa kata sifat yang tidak ditempatkan di depan:

The girl looks tired and pale.

Dalam kenyataanya kata-kata dalam Bahasa Inggris bisa berfungsi baik sebagai kata benda maupun kata sifat:

democracy mandate, chief officer, humidity degree

Demikian Correct English kali ini membahas secara singkat mengenai jenis kata benda (noun), kata ganti (pronoun) dan kata sifat (adjective). Kita akan melanjutkan lagi dengan jenis kata yang lain dalam pelajaran yang akan datang.

(bersambung…)

Mojokerto, 15/07/09

the site keeper

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English For Young Learners (3)

Bila kamu bercerita, pada intinya kamu melukiskan pengalaman, kegiatan, ataupun kejadian yang kamu alami di waktu lampau, waktu yang belangsung sekarang, maupun waktu yang akan datang. Dalam pelajaran yang terdahulu, kita telah mempelajari bagaimana mengungkapkan peristiwa yang kita alami sehari-hari, maupun yang tengah dialami, atau sedang berlangsung. Bagaimana, gampangkan? Ayo sekarang kita belajar bagaimana menceritakan kegiatan yang terjadi pada waktu lampau, artinya kejadiannya sudah lewat waktu kita bercerita. Kita akan membahasanya dalam Simple Past Tense.

Simple Past Tense, pola kalimatnya adalah:

Dalam membuat kalimat, subyek diikuti dengan kata kerja bentuk II atau bentuk lampau, contohnya:

           Aku menjenguknya kemarin.                            I visited her yesterday
           Ia menyapaku dengan ramah.                         She called me friendly.
           Aku pulang tengah hari.                                    I went to home at noon.
           Aku merasa bahagia.                                         I felt happy.

Dalam contoh di atas I diikuti dengan visited, she diikuti called, I diikuti dengan went dan I diikuti dengan felt. Visied, called, went, dan felt merupakan bentuk ke-2 atau bentuk lampau dari: visit, call, go, dan feel. Lebih jelasnya begini:

Bentuk I (present) Bentuk II (past)

                        visit                         visited
                        call                          called
                        go                            went

                        feel                          felt

Mungkin timbul pertanyaan, kenapa kata visit dan call menjadi bentuk lampau dengan hanya menambahkan ‘ed’, sedangkan kata ‘go’ dan ‘feel’ berubah bentuknya? Ya, itu pertanyaan yang cerdas.

Benar. Dalam Bahasa Inggris, kata kerja ada yang beraturan (regular) dan ada yang tidak beraturan (irregular). Untuk menjadikan kata kerja yang beraturan ke dalam bentuk II atau lampau, cukup dengan menambahkan ‘ed’ di belakang.

                mengunjungi              visit visit + ed visited
                menyapa                    call call + ed called
                berbicara                    talk talk + ed talked
                bekerja                       work wrok + ed worked

Beberapa ketentuan untuk membentuk Simple Past Tense kata kerja yang beraturan / regular verb:

• Kata kerja yang berakhiran –pe, hanya ditambah dengan ‘d’ saja

               hope – hoped
               note – noted

• Kata kerja / verb yang berakhiran – y, bila di depan huruf ‘y’ itu huruf mati (consonant), maka ‘y’ menjadi ‘i’ baru ditambahkan ‘ed’.

               belajar                         study - studied
               membawa                  carry - carried
               menjelaskan              clarify - clarified

• Kata kerja /verb yang berakhiran – y, bila di depan huruf ‘y’ itu adalah huruf hidup (vowel) dan huruf hidup itu mengikuti satu huruf mati, maka ‘y’ berubah menjadi ‘i’ dan ditambahkan ‘d’

membayar               pay                       paid
berbaring                 lay                         laid

• Kata kerja /verb yang berakhiran – y, bila di depan huruf ‘y’ itu adalah huruf hidup (vowel) dan huruf hidup itu mengikuti lebih dari satu huruf mati, maka ‘y’ tidak berubah dan ditambahkan ‘ed’

bermain                 play played
tinggal                    stay stayed

Perubahan kata kerja yang tidak beraturan (irregular verb), dapat dilihat di kamus atau di buku mengenai grammar. Biasanya disitu disertakan daftar irregular verb-nya.

Penggunaan Simple Past Tense:

• Untuk melukiskan peristiwa yang terjadi di waktu lampau dan berakhirnya juga di waktu lampau.

Sejam yang lalu aku akan pisang.        I ate banana one hour ago.
                                                                     (makannya sudah satu jam yang lalu, sekarang tidak lagi)

Ia melempar bukunya.                        She threw the book. (melempar bukunya sudah lewat,                                                                               sekarang tidak lagi)

• Untuk melukiskan dua peristiwa yang terjadi bersamaan atau hampir bersamaan di waktu lampau. Peristiwa yang terjadi pada klausa yang dimulai dengan ‘when’ terjadi lebih awal.

Aku menulis surat dan adikku menonton TV.                 I wrote a letter and my brother watched the TV. ( peristiwa membaca dan menonoton TV terjadi bersamaan)

Susunya tumpah ketika ia memecahkan gelas.           The milk spilled out when she broke the glass. (gelas pecah duluan, baru susunya tumpah)

Kita lihat hasil karya kita sejak pelajaran I dan kita tambahkan beberapa kalimat yang meggunakan semple past tense. Hasilnya seperti ini.


I get up at 5.30 o’clock every day, but I wake up early this morning. It is 5.00 o’clock in the morning now. I open the window and the stars are still shinning. Not like the stars, the moon is getting fade. As usual, I clean the bedroom and then I take a bath. I don’t forget to brush the teeth. While I am taking a bath, my mother is preparing my breakfast. It takes me around 10 minutes to get dressed. I usually have breakfast at 06.00. If I am in hurry, just take a slice of bread and drink a glass of water.

I go to school at 06.30. I often take the same route to go to school. But yesterday I took another way, as there was an accident in Jl. Antasari, the way I usually go through. I car hit a motorist from the behind. Since the motorist wounded seriously, some nearest residents sent him to the hospital. When I passed the location this morning, no more people crowded. They all went away.

There are many things to do in school. I learn to read, write, draw and sing. I listen to the teacher when she explains the lessons. Sometimes, she does not allow us to write anything while she is explaining the difficult subject. Yesterday, Ms. Anne got upset because while she was explaining, some students talked to one to another.

I go home at 12.00 and arrive at home at 13.00. After I take a rest for a few minutes, I have lunch. In the evening, I help my mother, study and watch the television. I go to bed at 21.00. When I went to bed yesterday, my mother was still watching the television and my father was reading a newspaper. Tonight they went to bed earlier; I got so tired. I did may works the whole day.

Dengan menambahkan satu tenses lagi dalam cerita itu kini ceritanya menjadi lebih hidup. Jadi semakin lengkap kamu memahami tenses, maka selain menulis lebih gampang dan lancar, cerita yang kita tulis juga lebih hidup dang manarik. Baiklah kita cukupkan sampai di sini dulu pelajaran kali ini, kita akan melanjutkan dengan pelajaran yang lain mendatang.

Selamar belajar.
the site keeper

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Another Way of English Learning

You may feel that you have been facing many troubles since you decided to learn English as a second language. This experience does not only happen to you. I think most of learners are facing the same problem. If you have decided not to escape from the learning, just because having experienced many difficulties, we tend to learn more linguistic rules but to put the language into day-to-day activities. Because of the lack of practice, we often find it difficult to express our idea in both written and spoken language.
There have been some sorts of ways of learning from which you may pick one out that best fits you. There are also some tips and hints of learning. A friend of mine who lives in Argentina (Latin America) has another way of learning, which you may take any advantage from. Here is the tip after necessary editing from me.


(1) Spend the time!

So far, the most important factor is how much time you are immersed in the language. The more time you spend with the language, the faster you will learn it. Learning here means all the kinds of efforts to obtain skills of listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases. This does not mean sitting in class looking out the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well, nor getting explanations in your own language about how the language works. This means spending time enjoyably connected to the language you are learning.

(2) Listen and read every day

Listen to whatsoever you are able to learn from; it might be a radio, television, VCD or MP3 player, or other audio devices. No other way of acquiring listening skills but to listen to anything of your preference. In class reading is mainly to learn what the text is about or find particular information, reading here is more than just what you do at class. It must be extensive reading, which, by steps, will lead you to a habit. It is more than just reading at class. If you keep more and more listening and reading, you will get used to the language. One hour of listening or reading outside is more effective than many hours of class time.

(3) Focus on words and phrases

Build up your vocabulary, you’ll need a lot of them. Start to notice words and how they come together as phrases. Learn these words and phrases through your listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists for review. Soon you will run into your new words and phrases elsewhere. Gradually, you will be able to use them. Do not worry about how perfect you speak, until you have accumulated plenty of words through listening and reading.

(4) Take responsibility for your own learning

If you are not in good mood to learn the language, you need not to force yourself. If you do want to learn the language or have good mood, take control. Choose content of interest that you want to listen to and read. Seek out the words and phrases that you need to understand when you are listening and reading. Do not wait for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do. Discover the language by yourself, like a child who is growing up. Talk when you feel like it. Write when you feel like it. A teacher cannot teach you to be fluent, but you can learn to be fluent if you want to.

(5) Relax and enjoy yourself

Do not worry about what you cannot remember, or cannot yet understand, or cannot yet say. It does not matter. You are learning and improving. The language will gradually become clearer in your brain, but this will happen on a schedule that you cannot control. So, sit down and enjoy. Just make sure you spend enough time with the language. That is the greatest guarantee of success.

I have been studying English for many years now, English is not my mother tongue, but I know English is very important. I have accumulated some experience, including this writing where I learn English and share it with you, I hope it is useful for you. We should work as hard as a farmer; and there will be a success, post-harvest fruits. After all, no pains, no gains.
English is a language; learning is not just to remember the words, phrases, sentences and grammar rules. It is a matter of making use of the language into the daily life. So, we must be sure to sharpen our skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. English language learning is, at the first step, a process of memorizing, which at the next step it is a process making practice. Where there is a will, there is a way. Believe yourself, and do the best work!

Rosa Morello
Edited by the site keeper
7rktqd329g

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Reading: It Is a Culture!

It is said that reading is a window of knowledge. To my opinion, it is not just a window, but it is more like a door. What is the reason to say so? Because reading is an absolute way for people to learn, study, explore, and to acquire knowledge, by which they improve the overall quality of their life. That is why in developed countries reading has been the culture of the nation. It is the part of their life. When shall reading be such a culture in Indonesia?

To establish the interest of reading, the National Education Curriculum has strongly encouraged students’ attitude towards reading. Reading is a skill that can only be acquired by leaning and practice. Further than just as a language skill, reading requires exercising to sharpen it. In school, students learn to find out what the text is about or locate particular information. This type of reading is called as intensive reading.

Lany Kristono, a lecturer of Faculty of Language and Literature of Satya Wacana Chritian Untiversity Salatiga, quoted an epigraph in Jo Ann Aebersold and Mary Lee Field’s book From Reader to Reading Teacher (1997) says, “Reading is like an infectious disease: it is caught not taught (And you can’t get it from someone who hasn’t got it). Since reading is infectious, it is mostly acquired from the life environment: family, school and society. The aim of reading here is not limited to catching particular information and understanding the content of the text, but most to allowing knowledge flowing into the mind. This type of reading is an extensive reading.

In developed countries, children have habit of reading from the reading environment, both from their family and school, as in these countries reading has been the part of the life. Realizing the importance of reading, parents provide books to their children. Even, they read books for their baby. Reading is not just a subject in schools in which students learn to understand the contents of the text, but it has been the culture of their life.

The habit of reading may be a little bit better in the middle and upper class society, as parents usually have better perception of reading and books are affordable. But for lower class, reading is still far from daily activities and books are still expensive items. In this case, National Education Curriculum should assertively encourage extensive reading as an integral part of the language teaching (English and Indonesian) and it should be done outside school.

Unlike intensive reading in which students learn text comprehension, extensive reading offer students to pick up materials of their preference. Extensive reading is mainly aimed at establishing the reading atmosphere in which they would experience reading as an enjoyment. Extensive reading will give a chance to learners to express what they think about the text, connect the text with their life and also share experience with the text. This will certainly be a valuable opportunity to them to learn reasoning skills. When learners have been accustomed to express their ideas with reasonable arguments, they will automatically improve their writing and speaking skill. In writing and speaking, not only do learners arrange words in grammatically correct rules, but also how they can express arguments with logical supports in the form of sentences.

Realizing the significance of reading, now it is the time for us to change our perception of reading. Reading is more like a door to us, through which we can appreciate text, relate it to our life, as well as share experience with the text. We can learn from the text and let knowledge flow in. How we perceive reading will influence the public view of reading. Once, people have perceived that reading is the part of our life and it is not just a subject in schools, then we come to a stage where reading is getting the culture of life. Since then, we will see far more people in public means of transportation or public waiting places, silently read something in hands but to chat that will just add the noise in the places.

Regards,
the site keeper

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Learn from Mistakes in Learning

English learners, especially beginners, usually think that they still have not got much progress after their certain years of learning. Again, they take a closer look at themselves to know if they have adequate ability to understand English. They would like to judge themselves if they were ‘eligible enough’ to learn English. In fact, it is the crucial stage of their learning, as their experience here will determine whether they continue the learning or just escape from it. Once they think that English is still affordable, they will continue the learning. But, if they judge that English is beyond them, they will end the learning with their long life perception that English is difficult. In this case, the role of the teacher to encourage them from being pessimistic is absolutely needed.

Some learners often worship a standardized of perfection of learning. They think that they must not make any mistakes in leaning. They are afraid of making any mistakes during their learning. This perception, of course, will result in psychological barrier to learners, as they would prefer to keep silent rather than be actively involved in the process of learning. They tend to do nothing to avoid of making mistakes. As a matter of fact, no learner can speak English without making any mistakes.

One of the teacher’s tasks is how they develop technique to encourage learners from the phobia of making mistakes. As making mistakes in learning is a natural phenomena, then the most important thing is now how to encourage these mistakes into ‘good mistakes’ when they learn to speak, experiment with new sentence structures and expand their vocabulary and writing. Being free from the phobia of making mistake will encourage learners to make much use of English in their daily lives.
A good mistake is logical error that makes sense that happens to be wrong. A child may think that 1+1 = 11. The answer is logical, but it is incorrect. He should know that 1+1 = 2. Anyway, his concept that 1+1= 11 is a good mistake. If learners end a letter with: I am looking forward to hear your reply, it is a logical mistake but they should have understanding that it should have been written as I am looking forward to hearing your replay. The role of the teacher is to confront this behavior. Making mistakes should not discourage them, but it should encourage them to learn from these good mistakes to correct language.

No matter how many good mistakes a learner may be facing, teacher should encourage English learners, in both conversation and writing classes, to make good mistakes. Learners should take as many as chances to put the language into practice. They should try something new, stretch their learning muscles, and have no more afraid of making good mistakes. A good mistake is also a mistake that we acknowledge and learn from to avoid repeating. A good mistake is not a good mistake if they have made it ten times before. One think that should be kept in mind is that we have to learn from a good mistake to be the right one and not repeat it. Repeated good mistakes will not be tolerated as good mistake any longer, as they now real mistakes.
So, learn from the mistakes but not to repeat the mistakes.
Regards,

the site keeper

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English for Young Learners (2)

Kali ini kita akan membahas bagaimana mengungkapkan kegiatan kita yang sedang kita lakukan. Misalnya saja saat ini kamu yang sedang membaca tulisan ini ingin mengatakan: ‘Sekarang aku sedang membaca artikel Bahasa Inggris di sebuah website’. Maka, dalam Bahasa Inggris-nya kamu bisa bilang: ‘Now, I am reading an English article in a website’. Kalau kita perhatikan kata kerja (verb) ‘membaca’ yang dalam kamus itu ‘write’, bentuknya kemudian menjadi am + reading. Dalam tata bahasa bentuk kata kerja yang demikian disebut Present Continuous Tense. Mari kita pelajari lebih lanjut tentang bentuk kata kerja dan penggunaan tense ini.

Present Continuous Tense

Bentuk kata kerja dengan present continuous tense ini mempunyai pola seperti ini

to be + kata kerja bentuk ing.

To be terdiri dari: am, is, are, was, were.
Penggunaanya dalam kalimat seperti berikut ini:

I am singing.
You are working.
He is sleeping.
She is crying.
It is raining.
You are all kidding.
We are swimming.
They are talking.

Contoh lain:

Saya sedang menulis surat untuk adikku perempuan – I am writing a letter to my younger sister.

Martina sedang membaca puisi di depan kelas – Martina is reading poetry in front of the class.

Pak Raden sedang mencuci mobilnya dengan air – Mr. Raden is washing his car with water.

Kami sedang memanjat gunung Merbabu – We are climbing Mount Merbabu.

Penggunaan present continuous tense:

1. Untuk melukiskan peristiwa yang sedang terjadi pada saat pelaku berbicara

I am reading an English article. ( saat ini sedang membaca)

2. Untuk melukiskan peristiwa yang masih berlangung, tetapi tidak harus terjadi saat ada pembicaraan.

I am writing a short story. (pada saat pembicaraa belum tentu sedang menulis, tapi proyek menulisnya memang belum selesai, masih berlangsung)

3. Untuk melukiskan peristiwa yang sedang berlangsung ketika suatu peristiwa terjadi

When I come in to the class, she is crying in the corner. (ketika saya masuk kelas, ia sedang menangis di sudut ruangan, menangisnya terjadi duluan)

Past Continuous Tense

Sekalian saja, ayo kita pelajari bagaimana kalau kita ingin mengungkapkan peristiwa yang sedang terjadi tapi waktunya sudah lewat, bukan saat ini. Misalnya: ‘Jam 7.00 kemarin, aku sedang menyanyi’. Itu gampang saja. Gantilah to be am dengan bentuk lampaunya, yaitu was, sehingga kalimatnya menjadi: At 7.00 o’clock,  I was singing yesterday.

Untuk kalimat yang subject-nya I, you, we, they, tidak menggunakan was, tetapi menggunakan were. Were ini adalah bentuk lampau dari are.

I was singing.
You were working.
He was sleeping.
She was crying.
It was raining.
You were all kidding.
We were swimming.
They were talking.

Penggunaan Past Continuous Tense:

Kapan tenses ini digunakan? Kita bisa menggunakan past continuous tense untuk hal-hal berikut:

1. untuk melukiskan peristiwa yang sedang terjadi pada waktu yang sudah lewat, jadi bukan saat pembicaraan terjadi.

I was listening to the radio all day long. (mungkin mendengarkannya seharian itu kemarin, bukan hari ini)

2. Untuk melukiskan peristiwa yang sedang terjadi diwaktu lampu, ketika peristiwa yang lain terjadi

Ina was finishing the exercises when he suddenly knocked the door. (sedang menyelesaikan latihan- mungkin kemarin- ketika ia mengetuk pintu.


Coba kita ambil cerita dari pelajaran yang kemarin, dan kita kembangkan dengan menambahkan beberapa kalimat yang menggunakan present continuous tense dan past continuous tense biar lebih menarik.


I get up at 5.30 o’clock every day, but I wake up early this morning. It is 5.00 o’clock in the morning now. I open the window and the stars are still shinning. Not like the stars, the moon is getting fade. As usual, I clean the bedroom and then I take a bath. I don’t forget to brush the teeth. While I am taking a bath, my mother is preparing my breakfast. It takes around 10 minutes to get dressed. I usually have breakfast at 06.00. If I am in hurry, just take a slice of bread and drink a glass of water.

I go to school at 06.30. I often take the same route to go to school. There was an accident in this street yesterday. When I passed this location, people were crowding here. But there are no more people now.

There are many things to do in school. I learn to read, write, draw and sing. I listen to the teacher when she explains the lessons. Sometimes, she does not allow us to write anything while she is explaining the difficult subject. I go home at 12.00 and arrive at home at 13.00. After I take a rest for a few minutes, I have lunch. In the evening, I help my mother, study and watch the television. I go to bed at 21.00. When I went to bed yesterday, my mother was still watching the television and my father was reading a news paper. Tonight, they went to bed earlier.

Dari cerita yang semula pendek dan sederhana karena hanya menggunakan simple present tense, kini kita telah menambahkan beberapa kalimat dengan menggunakan present continuous tense dan past continuous tense. Ceritanya menjadi lebih menarik bukan? Itu artinya dengan mempelajari bagian ini kamu lebih pinter dari pada saat kamu mempelajari pelajaran pertama. Kamu bisa lihat sendiri kan kalau semakin banyak latihan kamu semakin pinter?

Tugas kamu sekarang adalah mempelajari dan berlatih membuat kalimat, bicara, atau membuat cerita dengan acuan apa yang kita pelajari dalam pelajaran 1 dan ke-2.
Untuk sementara pelajaran kita sampai di sini dulu biar tidak terlalu banyak. Kita akan menyambungnya dengan pelajaran yang lain lagi, supaya kamu makin pinter.

(Bersambung……)

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